The police have long used thermal imaging cameras to detect marijuana growing operations. Now, thanks to drones, crooks are getting into the weed-finding game too. Except in their case, they're trying to find the weed so they can steal it.

The Halesowen News in the UK reports that at least one criminal has used an unmanned drone armed with heat-detecting cameras to find growhouses. For those of you unfamiliar with the business, in-door marijuana growing operations give off an enormous amount of heat because growers use powerful lighting arrays to grow very potent weed very fast.

According to the delightful interview with the criminal drone operator, finding illegal growing operations is a piece of cake, but taking the weed is easy, too. Forget the strongarm drug house robberies on shows like The Wire.

The 33-year-old said: "Half the time we don't even need to use violence to get the crop. Growing cannabis has gone mainstream and the people growing it are not gangsters, especially in places like Halesowen, Cradley Heath and Oldbury.

The crook, then, either straight up takes all the weed or imposes a tax on the growers. That's the way of the world. New technology changes the way we do business, even if you're working in the black market. Are you ready to get high on the new drone economy? [Halesowen News via Motherboard]